Ink jet printing has become a prominent contender in the digital output arena because of its non-impact, low-noise characteristics, and its compatibility with plain paper. Ink jet printing avoids the complications of toner transfers and fixing as in electrophotography, and the pressure contact at the printing interface as in thermal resistive printing technologies. Ink jet printing mechanisms include continuous ink jet or drop-on-demand ink jet. U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,398, which issued to Kyser et al. in 1970, discloses a drop-on-demand ink jet printer which applies a high voltage to a piezoelectric crystal, causing the crystal to bend, applying pressure on an ink reservoir and jetting drops on demand. Piezoelectric ink jet printers can also utilize piezoelectric crystals in push mode, shear mode, and squeeze mode. EP 827 833 A2 and WO 98/08687 disclose a piezoelectric ink jet print head apparatus with reduced crosstalk between channels, improved ink protection, and capability of ejecting variable ink drop size.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,129, issued to Endo et al, discloses an electrothermal drop-on-demand ink jet printer which applies a power pulse to an electrothermal heater which is in thermal contact with water based ink in a nozzle. The heat from the electrothermal heater produces vapor bubble in the ink, which causes an ink drop to be ejected from a small aperture along the edge of the heater substrate. This technology is known as Bubblejet.TM. (trademark of Canon K.K. of Japan).
Recently, the ink jet printing technologies have advanced significantly so that the ink jet printers can provide images that are close to the silver halide photographic prints. One key requirement for photographs is the surface texture properties. The silver halide photographs have two common types of surface textures: glossy surface and matte surface. Different users tend to have their personal preferences in the type of the surface texture. Gloss refers to the luster and brightness associated with the surface, which is appealing to some users. A gloss surface is usually produced by a smooth surface. One property or shortcoming of the gloss surface is that the viewing of an image is dependent on the illumination and the viewing angles. This is why some users prefer a matte surface that is less dependent on illumination and view directions. A matte surface is often provided by some surface textures, for example, a rough or granular surface, that can scatter light in different directions. The scattering of light decreases gloss and can keep the viewing of an image more or less constant under various observation directions. Sometimes, a mildly matte surface is also called a satin surface. There is a need to conveniently provide ink images with both glossy and matte textures so that the ink images can mimic silver halide photographs.